Films may be preceded by a short film by an independent filmmaker, and screenings are accompanied by programme notes about the film, the directors and the cast, and members are encouraged to stay behind to discuss the film.

You can also visit Ely Film Society's 2014/15,2015/16 and 2016/17 programmes and their accompanying programme notes.

SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (1941)

US

Directed by: Preston Sturges

A director of escapist
films goes on the road as a hobo to learn about life, which gives him
a rude awakening.

Screening: Monday, 19 June
2017

FOUR LIONS (2010)

UK

Directed by: Chris Morris

Four incompetent British
jihadists set out to train for and commit an act of terror.

Screening: Monday, 17 July
2017

THE FIREMEN’S BALL (1967)

Czechoslovakia

Directed by: Miloš Forman

The fire department in a
small town is having a party for the ex-boss’s 86th birthday. The
whole town is invited but things don’t go as planned...

Screening: Monday, 21 August
2017

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995)

US

Directed by: Richard Linklater

A young man and woman
meet on a train while exploring Europe, and spend one magical evening
in Vienna. Both know it is probably their only night together.

Screening: Monday, 18 September
2017

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)

UK

Directed by: David Lynch

A Victorian surgeon
rescues a heavily disfigured man who scrapes a living as a side-show
freak. Behind his monstrous facade, there is revealed a person of
intelligence and sensitivity.

Screening: Monday, 16 October
2017

CARMEN (1983)

Spain

Directed by: Carlos Saura

A group of flamenco
dancers rehearse a very Spanish version of Bizet’s opera. Real life
passions echo those of the drama.

Screening: Monday, 20 November
2017

THE ILLUSIONIST (2010)

France

Directed by: Sylvain Chomet

A French illusionist out
of work travels to Scotland, where he meets a young woman. Their
ensuing adventure changes their lives forever.

Screening: Monday, 18 December
2017

CENTRAL STATION (1988)

Brazil

Directed by: Walter Salles

The emotive journey of a
former school teacher and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as
they search for the father he never knew.

Screening: Monday, January 15
2018

CANTERBURY TALE (1944)

UK

Directed by: Powell & Pressburger

A ‘Land Girl’, an
American GI, and a British soldier are on the road to Canterbury, and
tangle with the local magistrate, an eccentric figure with a strange,
mystical vision of England.

Screening: Monday, February 19
2018

WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957)

Sweden

Directed by: Ingmar Bergman

After living a life
marked by coldness, an ageing professor is forced to confront the
emptiness of his existence.

Screening: Monday, March 19
2018

THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980)

UK

Directed by: John Mackenzie

Rich gangster Harold is
set to close a property deal when bombs start blowing up in
inconvenient places. A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on
his patch - he wants to know who.

Screening: Monday, April 16
2018

CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994)

Hong Kong

Directed by: Wong Kar-wei

Two melancholy Hong Kong
policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld
figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night
restaurant.

Screening: Monday, May 21
2018

THE CONFORMIST (1970)

Italy

Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci

A weak-willed man becomes
a flunkey for Mussolini’s fascists and goes abroad to arrange the
assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

Screening: Monday, June 18
2018

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)

US

Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich

In 1951, a group of
high-schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated West Texas town that
is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.

Screening: Monday, July 16
2018

OF HORSES AND MEN (2013)

Iceland

Directed by: Benedikt Erlingsson

A country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human. Love and death become interlaced and with immense consequences.

Screening: Monday, August 21
2018

INNOCENT SORCERERS (1960)

Poland

Directed by: Andrzej Wajda

A young doctor is tired
of being sought by women. One night he meets a young girl who all
but forces herself into his room where they talk of morals and love.

Screening: Monday, September 17
2018

ROME, OPEN CITY (1945)

Italy

Directed by: Roberto Rossellini

During the Nazi
occupation of Rome in 1944, resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is
chased by Nazis and he seeks refuge and escape.

Screening: Monday, October 15
2018

THE PLAYER (1992)

US

Directed by: Robert Altman

A Hollywood studio
executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he
rejected - but which one?

Screening: Monday, November 19
2018

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014)

US

Directed by: Ana Lily Amirpour

In the Iranian ghost-town
Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople
are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

Screening: Monday, December 17
2018

ALPHAVILLE (1965)

France

Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard

A secret agent is sent to
the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing
person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.

Screening: Monday, January 21
2019

ARCHIPELAGO (2010)

UK

Directed by: Joanna Hogg

Deep fractures within a
family dynamic begin to surface during a getaway to the Isles of
Scilly.

Screening: Monday, February 18
2019

THE GREAT BEAUTY (2013)

Italy

Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino

At 65, Jep has seduced
his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but
a shock from the past makes him look past the parties to find a
timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

Screening: Monday, March 18
2019

THE CONVERSATION (1974)

US

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

A paranoid, secretive
surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a
couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Screening: Monday, April 15
2019

FIREWORKS (1997)

Japan

Directed by: Takeshi Kitano

Nishi leaves the police
in the face of harrowing personal and professional difficulties.
Spiraling into depression, he makes questionable decisions.